Some of you may remember we interviewed
Jon mainly about his band Dead Leaves Rising about 7 issues ago.
Since then Jon’s been doing a lot, including recording a drone album of
his project Aarktica
released by QRD’s brother Silber Records.
So I tried to touch on all the stuff going on & get a decent interview
at the same time…..

QRD – You've been involved with quite
a few musical projects (fade, Dead Leaves Rising, still, Aarktica, Morning
Color
Division, Flare), could you touch on the different styles of these &
which ones you find most exciting?

Jon – The only projects I'm currently
involved with are The Dead Leaves Rising, Aarktica, & Flare. Fade was
my first project back when I was in my mid-teens, & that evolved into
The Dead Leaves Rising years ago. The name change came about mostly because
the music changed so substantially, from delicate minimalistic acoustic
pieces, to more involved & more folk/pop oriented material. Same thing
with still. Still was a short-lived atmospheric beat project, which turned
into Aarktica over the past year or so. I guess the name changed as the
material really started to mature. Aarktica removes the drum & bass
from still, but preserves the drone/noise aspect. The Morning Color Division
was a pop group I played in for about a year or so in late 98 through late
99. There was a big conflict in interest within the band, & we broke
up shortly after recording our first EP, which was never officially released.
Flare is my latest group. I came to meet LD Beghtol (who is the singer
& leader of Flare, as well as a member of the Moth Wranglers &
part time Magnetic Fields alumnus) around the same time Flare was looking
for a new guitarist. Flare's intelligent brooding chamber pop was very
appealing to me, & it didn't really take long for things to click,
& he asked me to join. So I did. So now I play guitar & banjo,
as well as sing a little in Flare. I don't know if I've ever described
any of my music as exciting. Morning Color Division was as close to exciting
as it gets because there was a lot of screaming & throwing things...mostly
at each other. I guess Flare seems to have the most potential to me because
it's the most original & professional of all my current projects.

QRD – How much music do you think you'd
release a year & how many live shows would you play if you could concentrate
all your time on music?

Jon – I probably wouldn't play many live
shows at all. People don't want to see acoustic music live unless you're
already a legend. I might do an occasional Aarktica show if I could find
a way to make it interesting live. I wouldn't release a lot of material
because that takes money, & then I'd need a job, which would defeat
the purpose of the question. But if I did have money, I would probably
release a lot of music... but probably other people's music.

QRD – What's your favorite piece of musical
equipment & what piece would you most like to get?

Jon – My Fender Vibrochamp & lately
my Line 6 Delay pedal. Other than that, all my equipment gives me problems.
I saw these electric sitars at 30th St. Guitars the other day. I think
it would be pretty cool to own one of those. Or a really high end graphic
equalizer for my guitar set up. Listening back to the Aarktica album, I
wish that I could've had a way to boost some of the upper-mids in the guitar
tone, up around 8K... I think that's something I'll need to get for the
next album.

QRD – Do you think it's worth it to artificially
create trauma in your life to enhance your art?

Jon – Trauma actually makes it harder
for me to work, so I'd have to say that would be counterproductive.

QRD – What would you most like to change
in your music that you don't think you can &/or know how?

Jon – I wish there were more than just
12 notes to work with.

QRD – Now that your getting offers to
have your material released by other labels, what do you think is going
to become of Brighter Records?

Jon – After I graduate from NYU, I plan
to get a job where I'll be making enough money to fund Brighter Records,
which means you'll hopefully be seeing some projects being released that
aren't my own. I'd rather be producing other artists than recording myself
I think.

QRD – What time period would you most
like to make music in?

Jon – I'm not even interested in land
travel, let alone time travel.

QRD – Does your music sounding modern
or current make you scared it will be dated to this era?

Jon – I don't think 20, 30, or 200 years
from now, people will look back at my music & think it was representative
of what was considered "pop" music of the time. I mean, unfortunately it's
drum & bass & other electronica that is going to be the "disco"
of the future. It’s like, Flare & The Dead Leaves Rising borrow from
certain folk traditions, & I think that makes them hard to pin a genre
on. Some of the music could just as easily been written in the 1960's...or
even in the 1860's if you consider the kind of instruments Flare uses.

QRD – What would you like to see done
musically by yourself or others over the next ten years?

Jon – I would love to see the advent of
atonalism, serialism & minimalism in pop music. I think to some extent,
some modern artists have taken ideas that composers like Cage, Subotnick,
Stockhausen, Adams, & especially Reich had proposed, & really brought
them to another level. Albeit, mostly in the electronic scene, & I
tend to think that everything going that way is almost headed for a dead
end. You run into the problem of avoiding a generic sound, &
suddenly experimental music doesn't become so experimental. But still,
I feel it is still good because it is influencing a mass of people who
may catch on. Bands like Low have brought minimalism to pop music, just
as Hood has utilized atonalism, & His Name is Alive utilized serialism.
I'm really reluctant to make any predictions about 10 years from now. Hardly
anyone I know listens to music anymore. It's like we're bombarded
by MP3s, Real Audio, home recorded digital audio... & now people are
either making the necessary choice to be very selective in what they listen
to, or just choosing not to listen to anything anymore. I'm not so sure
the advent of all these new mediums is really helpful to musicians or not,
& I have no idea where the state of things is going to be in 10 years.

QRD – You have a lot of recorded material
you aren't using for your next album, what are you planning on doing with
it all?

Jon – I guess you're talking about the
Aarktica album? There's really not that much left over. & what is left
is all on 4-track cassette. I'm planning to convert to mini-disk for the
next release, so I don't know if those tapes will be obsolete or what.
I really haven't decided what I'm going to do with them…

QRD – What is the biggest influence to
your music other than other people's music?

Jon – Being fucked over. Other than that,
I completely lack influence.

QRD – About a year ago you were talking
about writing a novel, do you still plan to?

Jon – Yeah, I've been writing it for over
a year... little parts at a time, on little pieces of paper which are scattered
in different pants pockets & things. I hope to work on it a lot over
this summer & shop it around in the fall/winter.

QRD – How many records do you think you'd
be comfortable selling?

Jon – Several million.

QRD – What decision that you've made do
you think has been most detrimental to your career as a musician?

Jon – Being an arrogant fuck to a woman
at BMG who wanted to help me get signed.

QRD – What record have you been listening
to longest that you still actually listen to?

Jon – Probably Johnny Cash American Recordings,
which comes in & out of my CD player every few weeks. As far as album
that I've listened to straight without stopping...Magnetic Fields 69 Love
Songs, at least 1 disc of the set is in my player at all times.